Before I knew anything about the guy, I knew the name. Richard Earnshaw (facebook, discogs, myspace) has dropped that name on some of the most exquisite House records of the last decade and in the process became one of the industry's most in-demand remixers.

Very few remixers have established their own sound the way Richard has. Even fewer have the capability to make mediocre track into a great one, and a great song into a classic.

But despite making his name as this decade's remix king, Richard is also an incredibly talented producer, one of the UK's top DJs and his classically-trained hands make beautiful music on the keys.

When's the last time you did some extended touring in North America?

Truth be known, I've never toured North America! I've been over there a few times on a social/family tip as my wife has extended family in Toronto but I've never quite managed to sort out dates during my visit or indeed, an extended tour. There have been a few sniffs over the last few years but nothing concrete as yet. I have a new booking agent in place now and with all the exciting things coming up over the next few months, hopefully I'll get out there this year.

So how did you go from the Conservatory to the Club? Is DJing, production and remixing - being the man behind the console - something you could ever see yourself doing as a music student and young pianist?

Well I was always into music from two particular angles. Firstly, as a performer - I was classically-trained and then moved onto jazz when I was about 15. The other was from a production angle. I got my first "proper" computer when I was 15 and it allowed me to realize this whole "making music electronically" stuff. I'm a real techno geek and always had a not-so-secret love affair with synthesizers. I even did my University dissertation on synthesis! DJing started very late for me, in fact I've only really been DJing (professionally) for about 10 years. Up until then it was bedroom stuff, and I didn't realize its potential as a performance element.

What kind of music blew your socks off back when you were young, and what are you dissecting and feasting on today?

My musical influences are very broad. My father was a jazz guitarist and my mother was and still is singing with the chorus at Royal Opera House in London. So for starters, there was a lot of jazz and opera in the house. Loads of rock - Genesis, Pink Floyd, Peter Gabriel.... all the big stadium showpiece sort of stuff. When I started buying my own music, it was the 1980s so I was into Jarre, Vangelis, Pet Shop Boys, Depeche Mode - basically anything that was synth based. And of course the usual sprinkling of soul and funk thrown in there for good measure!

There's been a serious comeback with live acts that we've been documenting. Do you see yourself getting a band together and hitting the road?

Funny you should ask. My debut album In Time is coming out his summer and I'm currently putting together the band to do the launch party at the Jazz Café in London. It's on the 19th of June and it's very exciting. When I first started out in the whole House Music scene, myself, Mark Horwood and Piers Penfold made up Fusion Groove Orchestra and we did a few live gigs in the late 1990s. The best bit was that we never really rehearsed anything, just got on stage with the band and made it up as we went along, almost total improvisation. We even ripped out a drum and bass set with Grooverider which he went on about on Radio 1! But my gig in June will be much more organized! We've got some rather special guests appearing too so it'll be a blast!

Do you find it odd that someone with your compositional background has become so well-known for remixing?

In a way, yes. But then when I remix, I'm effectively re-writing the music, leaving only the lyrics/melody as my reference so for me it's still a gratifying compositional process. The only downside is that remixers are almost never credited with composition, only production.

You have a lot of projects that many people "know", without knowing the people behind them. How did Spiritchaser, The Little Big Band and One51 come about?

I guess some of them were started as a way of getting a different style out and about. Spiritchaser is something I've been working on with my partner Mark Bamford for about 10 years now. We met in a pub in 1999 - Mark was DJing Deep House, I was drinking. But we hit it off straight away as we both loved music, in particular the electronic stuff. We've been doing a selection of Spiritlevel EPs over the last couple of years which have been well received so we set about doing our first album last year. It's called 1440 and it's ready to go and will be out this summer.

One51 is me and Daniel Jones. We are always looking to stretch boundaries with our sound now and again, with our jazz influences playing a big part. There may well be an album, perhaps later this year or next but we've not committed to it.

Little Big Band is something I'm working on with Matt Gray and Simon Green, who used to sing with us in Fusion Groove Orchestra. Little Big Band had been on holiday for a while with so many other things on the go, but we've now written our first album and it's now down to production.

There are some other names I use or am involved with: Sole Unity, Miles Borrero, White Dwarf, Muzagene, and there's a couple of others brewing. All of which are different styles of music. I guess it would be easier to use my name, but with so many genres of music these days one can't avoid conjuring up new monikers for our musical output!

You've had an enormous impact in just the eight years since "People Are People" on Soulfuric blew up. Where do you see yourself in another decade?

I guess I was lucky to break into the scene when I did, and it's been a fantastic journey so far. In another 10 years, I'd just like to be doing what I'm doing now. Sometimes things we've been working on have taken a few years to get straight since we started the company in 2003. So some of the things we're working on now may take awhile to come together. These days, it's a constant technological battle of wits!

Hopefully, the damage file sharing has already done will be less so then, and making a proper career out of music will be less difficult. Who knows?! All we can do is to embrace change and make sure we don't do too many mistakes. That way, we'll still be here in 10 years!

Tell me what's going on with Duffnote and the other stuff you have coming out.

There are 3 of us running Duffnote: myself, Daniel Jones and Matt Gray. And it's not just the administrative side of things that we indulge in. Dan and I do a lot of writing and production together (e.g. One51, Earnshaw & Jones, White Dwarf amongst others), and Matt has been playing bass for me for 12 years. If you can hear any live bass on our music, it's always Matt.

Things are getting exciting with the labels. Duffnote has some really nice material coming up, with some new material from myself (about time!). One51 and Guess also have some exciting times ahead... artist albums of all sorts. It's hard to convey what's going on! We're about to finally have the website go online, hopefully in the next few weeks. That will play a big part in the exposure of our forthcoming mischief, of which I can assure you will be plentiful!